What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

101 Best Songs of 1986 vs 1996: #1 There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths / A Long December - Counting Crows (1 Viewer)

I'll always have a soft spot for Cake, being a Sacramento band. My wife saw then live in a private show with about 15 people years back. I was a little envious. I have a lot thoughts about Cake, but mainly, I just wish McCrea wasn't such a self-important douchebag.
 
#21

If You Leave - OMD


I can’t hear this song without picturing Andie, Blaine, and Ducky. The second song in the countdown from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, it was OMD’s biggest US hit, peaking at #4 on the Hot 100.


The Distance - Cake

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line… Cake really only had one trick, but they were damn near perfect at it.
OMD is one the most fun bands I’ve ever seen live (even as of earlier this year). If You Leave is an interesting song considering how it came about. Definitely not one of my favorites, but it’s on one hell of a movie soundtrack.

Cake - meh
 
I have a lot thoughts about Cake, but mainly, I just wish McCrea wasn't such a self-important douchebag.
Had no idea, but not shocked. I like a lot of Cake songs on their own, but an entire album was always way too much schtick for me.
 
#20

Dear God - XTC

Dear God didn’t originally appear on initial pressings of XTC’s 8th album Skylarking, but was instead released as a B-side to its first single. Apparently, the record company was concerned that the song might anger American audiences. The B-side got played so much by U.S. college radio DJs that Virgin re-issued the album with Dear God replacing an original track.

The record company wasn’t totally wrong though. A Florida radio station received a bomb threat for playing the song, and a NY high-school student forced staff to play the song over its PA system while holding a faculty member at knife-point.


Heaven Beside You - Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains self-titled third album was the final record made with Layne Staley, whose heroin addiction would force him out of the band and eventually lead to his death. Heaven Beside You was the second single, released in January 1996, Written and sung by Jerry Cantrell, it was the band’s last hit (not including live material) until they reformed in 2009.
 
I have a lot thoughts about Cake, but mainly, I just wish McCrea wasn't such a self-important douchebag.
Had no idea, but not shocked. I like a lot of Cake songs on their own, but an entire album was always way too much schtick for me.

I haven't witnessed personally, but in the rare event that they tour, several have told me that a Cake concert is a 50/50 mix of music and political ranting, including heckling his own audience for being a bunch of greedy ***holes.
 
Last edited:
#20

Dear God - XTC

Dear God didn’t originally appear on initial pressings of XTC’s 8th album Skylarking, but was instead released as a B-side to its first single. Apparently, the record company was concerned that the song might anger American audiences. The B-side got played so much by U.S. college radio DJs that Virgin re-issued the album with Dear God replacing an original track.

The record company wasn’t totally wrong though. A Florida radio station received a bomb threat for playing the song, and a NY high-school student forced staff to play the song over its PA system while holding a faculty member at knife-point.


Heaven Beside You - Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains self-titled third album was the final record made with Layne Staley, whose heroin addiction would force him out of the band and eventually lead to his death. Heaven Beside You was the second single, released in January 1996, Written and sung by Jerry Cantrell, it was the band’s last hit (not including live material) until they reformed in 2009.
My hot take, which I have shared in other music threads, is that Dear God is one of XTC’s worst songs. It’s obvious, simplistic, musically boring and vocally annoying.

Heaven Beside You is a gem.
 
#20

Dear God - XTC

Dear God didn’t originally appear on initial pressings of XTC’s 8th album Skylarking, but was instead released as a B-side to its first single. Apparently, the record company was concerned that the song might anger American audiences. The B-side got played so much by U.S. college radio DJs that Virgin re-issued the album with Dear God replacing an original track.

The record company wasn’t totally wrong though. A Florida radio station received a bomb threat for playing the song, and a NY high-school student forced staff to play the song over its PA system while holding a faculty member at knife-point.


Heaven Beside You - Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains self-titled third album was the final record made with Layne Staley, whose heroin addiction would force him out of the band and eventually lead to his death. Heaven Beside You was the second single, released in January 1996, Written and sung by Jerry Cantrell, it was the band’s last hit (not including live material) until they reformed in 2009.
My hot take, which I have shared in other music threads, is that Dear God is one of XTC’s worst songs. It’s obvious, simplistic, musically boring and vocally annoying.

Heaven Beside You is a gem.
I dig the rest of Skylarking a lot more.
 
I have a lot thoughts about Cake, but mainly, I just wish McCrea wasn't such a self-important douchebag.
Had no idea, but not shocked. I like a lot of Cake songs on their own, but an entire album was always way too much schtick for me.

I haven't witnessed personally, but in the rare event that they tour, several have told me that a Cake concert is a 50/50 mix of music and political ranting, including heckling his own audience for being a bunch of greedy ***holes.

Saw Cake live once, at a "hey look at all your favorites of the 90s" radio station festival. Their setup was minimum, the band seemed bored with the exception of Vince DiFore on trumpet. The most lasting memory was seeing a Vibraslap in action live. (Well, and Garbage coming on right after them).
 
#19

Notorious - Duran Duran

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Prior to recording their fourth album Notorious, founding members Roger and Andy Taylor both quit Duran Duran. Now a trio (Simon, Nick, and John), the band got guitar help from both Nile Rogers and former Missing Persons’ guitarist Warren Cuccorullo. The song Notorious was huge, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100. The album itself however suffered from disappointing sales, especially in comparison to peak-Duran from a couple of years earlier.


6th Avenue Heartache - Wallflowers

The Wallflowers 1992 self-titled debut was a critical success but commercial flop - selling just 40,000 copies. The band regrouped, played a lot of shows, and 4 years later got some studio time with T-Bone Burnett. The resulting album was huge, selling 4 million copies in the U.S. and garnering several Grammy nominations. 6th Avenue Heartache was the first single, and to me, it’s much stronger than higher-charting follow up releases.
 
I really liked that Wallflowers CD. Would've drove it home with One Headlight, myself

Had a few bangers on that puppy...
 
#19

Notorious - Duran Duran

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Prior to recording their fourth album Notorious, founding members Roger and Andy Taylor both quit Duran Duran. Now a trio (Simon, Nick, and John), the band got guitar help from both Nile Rogers and former Missing Persons’ guitarist Warren Cuccorullo....
How could you not mention the addition of drummer Steve Ferrone?!?! He really changed the sound of the band (in a good way). Pick up the pieces here @scorchy .
 
#25

Blood and Roses - Smithereens

I know there are a bunch of fellow Smithereens fans in the FFA. Their first album Especially for You is a gem - Kurt Cobain even named it one of his personal favorites. Blood and Roses is the obvious standout, though I also have a personal affinity for Cigarette, Cigarette after one particularly memorable live performance.

Ruby Soho - Rancid

At a time when all the other punk bands were "selling out," Rancid stuck to their guns and stayed with Epitaph, and were rewarded with the biggest selling album of their career, 1995's ...And Out Came the Wolves [the Wolves being major labels, of course]. Ruby Soho was released as the third single in January of '96. Seven years later, TIm Armstrong produced a really good P!nk album - the concept of selling out was likely dead by then.
Don’t know how I missed this one. I like Ruby Soho, but Blood and Roses is outstanding. I’m one of those who wonder how The Smithereens didn’t make it bigger.
 
#20

Dear God - XTC

Dear God didn’t originally appear on initial pressings of XTC’s 8th album Skylarking, but was instead released as a B-side to its first single. Apparently, the record company was concerned that the song might anger American audiences. The B-side got played so much by U.S. college radio DJs that Virgin re-issued the album with Dear God replacing an original track.

The record company wasn’t totally wrong though. A Florida radio station received a bomb threat for playing the song, and a NY high-school student forced staff to play the song over its PA system while holding a faculty member at knife-point.


Heaven Beside You - Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains self-titled third album was the final record made with Layne Staley, whose heroin addiction would force him out of the band and eventually lead to his death. Heaven Beside You was the second single, released in January 1996, Written and sung by Jerry Cantrell, it was the band’s last hit (not including live material) until they reformed in 2009.
Judging by my music tastes this should be a no-brainer. I’ll pull off the shocker and select XTC here. I remember seeing this song on 120 Minutes a lot. AIC has many better songs than this one IMO.
 
#19

Notorious - Duran Duran

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

Prior to recording their fourth album Notorious, founding members Roger and Andy Taylor both quit Duran Duran. Now a trio (Simon, Nick, and John), the band got guitar help from both Nile Rogers and former Missing Persons’ guitarist Warren Cuccorullo. The song Notorious was huge, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100. The album itself however suffered from disappointing sales, especially in comparison to peak-Duran from a couple of years earlier.
We saw Duran Duran at the Hollywood Bowl a few months ago and they still sounded really good.
 
Don’t know how I missed this one. I like Ruby Soho, but Blood and Roses is outstanding. I’m one of those who wonder how The Smithereens didn’t make it bigger.
I wrote a long post in another thread about how the Smithereens created such an amazing bond with the crowd during a 1990 show at UF that they'll forever be one of my favorite bands. In the early 2000s, I read an article about how they were doing living room shows up and down the east coast . My wife looked into booking them for my 30th birthday. I think it was $5K, and I told her not to, but now I'm really wishing we would have said f' it.
 
I always thought 6th Avenue Heartache sounded like Tom Petty.
Also notable in that it features Mr Smelly Counting Crows guy

Wouldn't surprise me to find out Benmont Tench played on some of that
I love Counting Crows, but I can personally attest that Adam Duritz indeed smells. Or at least he used to.

In my mind, I'm smelling cottage cheese that was left out for too long, vaguely masked by patchouli.
 
I always thought 6th Avenue Heartache sounded like Tom Petty.
Also notable in that it features Mr Smelly Counting Crows guy

Wouldn't surprise me to find out Benmont Tench played on some of that
I love Counting Crows, but I can personally attest that Adam Duritz indeed smells. Or at least he used to.

In my mind, I'm smelling cottage cheese that was left out for too long, vaguely masked by patchouli.
My guess is Lebanon bologna.
 
Last edited:

In my mind, I'm smelling cottage cheese that was left out for too long, vaguely masked by patchouli.
I really, really hate patchouli. At first, it was a little bit of schtick, because the goths all hated the hippies. Then a bunch of Phish fans ran out of cash in Gainesville and started bumming money outside the Burrito Brothers/Chinee Takee Outee - Brother can you spare a quarter to help my dog's mange? Dude, if I had money, I wouldn't be eating cheap-*** food from dirty take out places. Then they invaded the goth coffee shop and suddenly the wonderful smell of clove cigarettes was overwhelmed by the stench of BO and patchouli, and even after the hippies moved on, their nasty aroma had become one with the upholstery.

Now that I'm old, I've gotten really sensitive to smells and patchouli is an instant migraine trigger. In the last couple of years, a woman in our social circle has decided to only shower a few times a week to save water and instead drenches herself in patchouli. Any time I see her coming, I have to go into a different room. I'm sure she just thinks I'm an anti-social jerk, but that's better than telling her that her hippie smells gives me a debilitating headache.
 
#18

Bring on the Dancing Horses - Echo & the Bunnymen

Bring on the Dancing Horses was recorded specifically for the Pretty in Pink soundtrack but the band also included it as the only new song on their greatest hits record Songs to Learn and Sing. The single was released in November '85 in the UK but held up in the U.S. to coincide with the movie's release in March of '86. Hearing this song for the first time sent me on a mission to find an Echo & the Bunnymen tape. It took me over a year. Living in the sticks sucked.

Desperately Wanting - Better Than Ezra

I spent a lot of time in the fall of '96 being miserable and making mix tapes to help me dwell in it. Desperately Wanting was a staple. Even now it brings a weird mix of sadness and nostalgia. Beautiful song.
 
Desperately wanting was released when I was 15. Couldn't have timed this particular song's release any better.
 
#17

Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt

It was a lot easier to identify with Morrissey’s martyr complex when he was singing about how no one understands him or that he was completely unlovable. Teen angst before angst got its own genre. Not quite the same now that it’s manifested in English nationalism and a total lack of consideration for his fans (how many times has he walked off stage for ridiculous reasons?). He’s like the mopey Axl Rose, except Axl actually seems to have grown up.

Bigmouth Strikes Again was The Smiths ninth consecutive UK Indie #1 (the streak ended at 14).


Song Against Sex - Neutral Milk Hotel

I’m not gonna lie and say I was listening to Neutral Milk Hotel in 1996. Debut album Avery Island was released in March and sold just 5,000 copies despite some great reviews [even better reviews came retrospectively from places like Rolling Stone that ignored the record at the time].

The follow-up record, 1998’s In An Aeroplane Over the Sea sold a little better, but not by much. CMJ named it their album of the year and the VIllage Voice critics poll ranked it at #15. After a chaotic tour, the band broke up and the founder and primary driver of the band (Jeff Mangum) went into hiding. Somehow, the band and the two albums became an internet phenomenon, and by the early 2000s, hipsters everywhere were rocking Neutral Milk Hotel t-shirts and claiming they were there from the beginning.
 
Desperately Wanting - Better Than Ezra

I spent a lot of time in the fall of '96 being miserable and making mix tapes to help me dwell in it. Desperately Wanting was a staple. Even now it brings a weird mix of sadness and nostalgia. Beautiful song.

As much as I love BTE now and spend my monies on seeing them as much as possible, I was late to the game. Hated, hated "Good" (I've come around on it a bit now, I understand it's needed), so I didn't give the band another listen for years. My buddy loved them from the beginning and I would make the joke "if they are better than Ezra, Ezra must REALLY suck!" And then I really took a listen to this song somewhere around 2001, and immediately went and bought Friction, Garden and Closer, getting around to Surprise and Deluxe later.

It's amazing how a band can be so much different than their "biggest hit". For me, BTE, Barenaked Ladies and Cowboy Mouth all fall into this category. Love the band, hate the hit.
 
Not sure if I’m in the minority, but Duran Duran was never one of my favorites. :bag:
On a message board called footballguys, it's liking Duran Duran that's the anomaly.
Big fan of their early stuff. Very talented band once you get past the pretty boy image.
John Taylor is an excellent bass player.
Yup - learned from one of the best in Bernard Edwards of Chic.
 
#17

Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt

It was a lot easier to identify with Morrissey’s martyr complex when he was singing about how no one understands him or that he was completely unlovable. Teen angst before angst got its own genre. Not quite the same now that it’s manifested in English nationalism and a total lack of consideration for his fans (how many times has he walked off stage for ridiculous reasons?). He’s like the mopey Axl Rose,
I like the comparison between Morrissey & Axl Rose. I'm sure they would both like it too.
 
#16

The Outfield - Your Love

The Outfield's 1985 debut album didn't really sell in their native England, but was a surprise US hit, going double platinum and reaching #9 on the Billboard album chart. The band claims they didn't even know what an outfield was when they took the name - only that it had something to do with baseball. The first single, Say It Isn't So was released in December '85 and made the top 20. Your Love followed up that success in the spring of '86 by going Top 10. The critics hated it, calling it limp and derivative, but screw 'em. Your Love has a killer power pop hook and is still beloved 4 decades later.


Burden In My Hand - Soundgarden

My love for this song is all mixed up in the memories it evokes.

When Burden In My Hand was released in mid-September 1996, the seasonal beach restaurant where I worked was only a month away from shuttering for the year. Things get a lot looser as the crowds die down, and that means stuff that was verboten in August became customary. I wasn't smoking weed in the walk-in freezer or having quickies with waitresses in the office, but I did drink more in those 4 weeks than at any point in HS or college. Every night after the dinner rush ended, even if it was only 8:00 pm, the owner (who had a bit of a drinking problem) would come in the kitchen with a tray of "shift beers," tell one of us to put in the Soundgarden CD, and we would toast our Miller Lites while singing:

Crack a smile and cut your mouth
And drown in alcohol


And then we all would down our 20-ouncers and Dan would bring back another tray. Repeat until we closed at 11 pm. A few nights I slept on the prep table.
 
Last edited:
Burden in My Hand would be in my top five for 1996. Love that song and album, though the creation of that album is what lead to demise of Soundgarden. Cornell wanted the band to try a different sort of sound and got a lot of resistance from the others, who wanted to keep doing what they always did. But Cornell was the primary songwriter for everything they did, so he won the battle. The album is noticeably different than previous works, and in my opinion, maybe better.
 
I wasn't smoking weed in the walk-in freezer or having quickies with waitresses in the office
WHAT? Why not?
Shockingly, I was 100 percent drug-free. Looking back, I can't really remember why I was so anti, just never really considered it.
I was at that age too. Never smoked pot until my Lost Years (early 30s). It was mainly that I knew I could control how out-of-control I got with alcohol, and the same wasn't true for weed or other drugs. Another factor was that there was not much of a drug culture at my college at all, but a huge booze culture. By my Lost Years I DGAF anymore.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top